Citing ‘love jihad’, Sangh groups in UP unite to ‘fight’

The first such organisation has been formed in Meerut — Meerut Bachao Manch.

The Uttar Pradesh BJP unit may have dropped the issue of “love jihad” from its poll agenda, but various Sangh Parivar-linked organisations, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Jagran Manch, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, are joining hands to set up new fronts, particularly in western UP, to fight such alleged conversions.

The first such organisation has been formed in Meerut — Meerut Bachao Manch — where a former madrasa teacher had alleged forced conversion and gangrape earlier this month. The new front recently organised a peace march in Meerut and submitted a memorandum to the district administration demanding strict action in the case. It also sought measures to curb “love jihad”.
RSS sources said such organisations would also be set up in Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Bulandshahr, Saharanpur and Baghpat districts.

“So far, one front has been formed in Meerut. Such fronts against ‘love jihad’ will soon be formed at local levels in all other districts… Patriots will support our crusade against ‘love jihad’ that is leading the country towards another partition,” said VHP national spokesperson Surendra Kumar Jain.

“The formation of Meerut Bachao Manch was inspired by the recent incident… The front has made an appeal to the district administration to stop such incidents,” said Chirag Gupta, ABVP’s Meerut district secretary. He said senior ABVP leaders will hold conventions in different districts to create awareness among Hindus to protect their girls from conversions.

“We have supported an organisation, the Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, in Moradabad that is also working against ‘love jihad’. Workers of various organisations including BJYM, ABVP, VHP and others will soon form such district-wise fronts and work under a single banner,” said Hitesh, state organisation secretary of the Hindu Jagran Manch.

He said open debates on the issue will be organised inside and outside college campuses in western UP from September 15. The ABVP will mobilise the youth, while the VHP will appeal to all Hindus to attend these debates.

Another Sangh Parivar-linked organisation, the Dharma Jagran Manch, recently started a similar campaign to appeal to Hindus to curb the practice of ‘love jihad’.

“We have so far re-converted only Muslim and Christian families to Hindusim. Individual Hindu girls converted to Islam through ‘love jihad’ have not been re-converted by us. If any organisation like ABVP or HJM comes to us with such ‘love jihad’ victims, we will re-convert the girls to Hinduism,” said Rajeshwar Singh, organisation head of Dharma Jagran Manch in western UP.

The BJP’s Meerut district president, Suresh Jain, said BJYM workers had joined the Meerut Bachao Manch because they are responsible citizen.

In Bareilly, BJYM leader Sudheesh Pandey said while no such front has been formed in the district yet, the BJYM would stage protests and launch an agitation if any case of “love jihad” is reported.

Last week, the UP BJP planned to include the issue of “love jihad” and conversion of Hindus in its agenda for its executive committee meeting. But the issue was dropped at the last minute, although the documents circulated to members contained references to the Meerut incident.